er: we are men of honour, as well as you. Our design, as we told
you, was not to kill the miscreants; but to give them reason to remember
their villainy as long as they lived; and to put it out of their power
ever to be guilty of the like. They have made a vile attempt, continued
he, on a lady's honour at Abbeville; and, finding themselves detected,
and in danger, took roundabout ways, and shifted from one vehicle to
another, to escape the vengeance of her friends. The gentleman, whose
horse you held, and who has reason to be in a passion, is the husband of
the lady. [A Spanish husband, surely, Harriet; not a French one,
according to our notions.] That gentleman, and that, are her brothers.
We have been in pursuit of them two days; for they gave out, (in order,
no doubt, to put us on a wrong scent,) that they were to go to Antwerp.

And it seems, my dear, that Sir Hargrave and his colleague had actually
sent some of their servants that way; which was the reason that they were
themselves attended but by one.

The gentleman told Sir Charles that there was a third villain in their
plot. They had hopes, he said, that he would not escape the close
pursuit of a manufacturer at Abbeville, whose daughter, a lovely young
creature, he had seduced, under promises of marriage. Their government,
he observed, were great countenancers of the manufacturers at Abbeville;
and he would have reason, if he were laid hold of, to think himself
happy, if he came off with being obliged to perform his promises.

This third wretch must be Mr. Bagenhall. The Lord grant, say I, that he
may be laid hold of; and obliged to make a ruined girl an honest woman,
as they phrase it in LANCASHIRE. Don't you wish so, my dear? And let me
add, that had the relations of the injured lady completed their intended
vengeance on those two libertines; (a very proper punishment, I ween, for
all libertines;) it might have helped them to pass the rest of their
lives with great tranquillity; and honest girls might, for any
contrivances of theirs, have passed to and from masquerades without
molestation.

Sir Hargrave and his companion intended, it seems, at first, to make some
resistance; four only, of the seven, stopping the chaise: but when the
other three came up, and they saw who they were, and knew their own
guilt, their courage failed them.

The seventh man was set over the post-boy, whom he had led about half a
mile from the spot they had chosen as a convenient